Official Overwatch Discussion Thread

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Note that it specifies "Overwatch: Origin's Edition." It could just be a specific SKU, bundled with certain digital items, for retail and possibly mainly aimed at the consoles.

I haven't looked into it but I have to assume there are likely some different economics involved in the console market due to the necessary licensing arrangements with the platform holders. Perhaps different microtransaction revenue for purely f2p games (as they would not be able to extract the standard per title licensing fee).
 
Drakenfeng said:
I'm really surprised they're not making this F2P. After the downward spiral in popularity of SC2 and the massive success of HOTS and Hearthstone it doesn't seem logical. Even something like $15-20 to compete with CS:GO supplemented with skins would make more sense, but $60 seems like it will kill the competitive scene before it even gets off the ground.
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According to my source it was always planned as a retail box game. I don't blame them for not going F2P out of the gate - games more often fail than succeed when going that route, and having to monetize after the fact with microtransactions would guarantee relentless whining about P2W no matter how non-P2W they made it. You can't really point to Hearthstone as justification for why this game should be F2P, they're too different.

That said, I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up becoming F2P eventually, where you get a limited amount of Heroes (though the defaults will be good ones) and then can micro-buy additional.
 
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Drakenfeng said:
I'm really surprised they're not making this F2P. After the downward spiral in popularity of SC2 and the massive success of HOTS and Hearthstone it doesn't seem logical. Even something like $15-20 to compete with CS:GO supplemented with skins would make more sense, but $60 seems like it will kill the competitive scene before it even gets off the ground.
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I'm glad that they're not making it F2P and hope they never will. Going F2P was the worst thing to ever happen to Team Fortress 2. And reading around Reddit, it seems that people have always had the assumption that it was going to be F2P, so now with that expectation they're taking the piss when it's announced that it isn't.
 
It must be the work of benevolent deity that Overwatch has been released as a pay-to-play title. I'm considering buying the Origin Edition to support this decision. I wonder if they plan to sell skins and whatnot post launch, though, or if the Origin Edition is sort of the kind of one-off special edition visual customizations that we used to see in Special Editions of the past. To be fair, Blizzard has done this before with buy-to-play games like Diablo III and StarCraft 2 - each Deluxe edition granted a number of special visual bonuses/upgrades, and in a nice touch, often something for Blizz' other games as well! I've not played Team Fortress 2 very much since it WAS buy to play, but overall I've found the ultra rare drops found in lockboxes, "player market" stuff annoyingly obtuse and unnecessary. Likewise when similar plans were rolled out for DOTA2 and Counter Strike: Global Offensive! A firm competitor that gets away from a hell of microstransactions, cosmetic or otherwise, is to be commended.

Normally I'm not a huge fan of multiplayer competitive only shooters, but I hope Blizz can refresh the genre a bit, similar to what they did with Heroes of the Storm . I hope there is some sort of of meta-game progression in Overwatch, and that they bring in some cooperative / PVE / story events, as well as "campaign" progression in PVP matches. One thing Heroes of the Storm did will was make meaningful map changes in the MOBA gamespace (ie each HOTS map isn't simply a rehash of DOTA's basic 5v5 map and has special conditions that favor certain play styles versus others etc) , so I'd like to see this in Overwatch as well. If I recall correctly, Overwatch is sourced in part from the setting and characters developed for the TITAN MMO project, but Blizz didn't think they could pull it off fast enough - here's hoping they have some play modes besides endless e-sport style matches.

Really glad that they're releasing as a full buy to play title, though I am a bit concerned about console versions - I don't want anything held up on the PC version because Microsoft or Sony demand parity or preferred launch, content, patches etc...as console versions have basically acted as a pernicious virus to the quality of PC titles. Here's hoping that Blizzard will not allow console agreements to dictate any relation to the PC version at all.
 
Armenius said:
I'm glad that they're not making it F2P and hope they never will. Going F2P was the worst thing to ever happen to Team Fortress 2. And reading around Reddit, it seems that people have always had the assumption that it was going to be F2P, so now with that expectation they're taking the piss when it's announced that it isn't.
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Yeah, there seems to be that certain group of people that wanted it to by F2P just so they could piss on it for being F2P.
 
Xaeos said:
I wonder if they plan to sell skins and whatnot post launch, though, or if the Origin Edition is sort of the kind of one-off special edition visual customizations that we used to see in Special Editions of the past. To be fair, Blizzard has done this before with buy-to-play games like Diablo III and StarCraft 2 - each Deluxe edition granted a number of special visual bonuses/upgrades, and in a nice touch, often something for Blizz' other games as well
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IMO it is all but guaranteed that Blizz will be selling skins and other cosmetics like voice packs, taunts, etc...

I think part of the inspiration of the game was seeing just how much money LoL makes by selling skins and TF2 with hats. You can rest assured Activision wants that money.
 
HardUp4HardWare said:
I can't believe this is Blizzard.
Here we are all waiting for WOW 2 and instead we get TF3/Halo bastard child.
Game looks stupid. Another Hut! Hut! Hut! FPS that I can't and wont play because I suck at them.
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Yeah, I have to agree. This is the first game made by Blizzard that I have zero interest in. The Blizzard we knew and loved died when they merged with Activision. It is just a name now.
 
$40 for base, and $60 for extra skins?

Huge 'meh' from me. Doesn't look like more than $20 in content to me.
 
$20 for 5 skins? So this game is going to be infected with microtransactions eh? Can't say I am a fan of that revenue model, but as long as its cosmetics only and all other meaningful content is free (maps in particular), then it may actually work.

How many players does it support per match? Probably asking too much for a traditional server browser to be included rather than garbage match making :(
 
Blade-Runner said:
$20 for 5 skins? So this game is going to be infected with microtransactions eh? Can't say I am a fan of that revenue model, but as long as its cosmetics only and all other meaningful content is free (maps in particular), then it may actually work.

How many players does it support per match? Probably asking too much for a traditional server browser to be included rather than garbage match making :(
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Games are 6v6 right now across the game types they have implemented in closed beta, which is all defend / attack command points right now. The attacking team wins if they capture within the timelimit. No idea what other game modes there might be.
 
NoNRG said:
Games are 6v6 right now across the game types they have implemented in closed beta, which is all defend / attack command points right now. The attacking team wins if they capture within the timelimit. No idea what other game modes there might be.
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There are also payload escort maps, and hybrids of the two (point/escort)
Everything is designed for 6v6 right now.
 
soulesschild said:
Sigh still waiting on an invite. Sad days.
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If it's anything like Hearthstone or Heroes of the Storm, the beta phase will continue to get bigger (building hype) to reach the maximum audience to get as many sales as possible.

That it's multiplatform is a pretty big step; Diablo 3 seemed to whet their appetite for the expanded market. It's yet to be seen if it can survive in the already overcrowded MP-FPS space.
 
Got in on beta this past weekend. Took a little while to get used to the game play. But I honestly feel like it's a cool new take on fps gaming. No one else is doing anything different. Once I got used to it I couldn't stop playing. All the characters play differently and take sometime to master. The robot ninja was a blast. Really haven't had this much fun with an fps game in awhile
 
Reus said:
Yeah, I have to agree. This is the first game made by Blizzard that I have zero interest in. The Blizzard we knew and loved died when they merged with Activision. It is just a name now.
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HUH... what?

They have the best MMO, best ARPG, best RTS, a really good MOBA, the best online card game, and now overwatch?

Blizzard is at the tops of PC gaming companies.
 
XvMMvX said:
HUH... what?

They have the best MMO, best ARPG, best RTS, a really good MOBA, the best online card game, and now overwatch?

Blizzard is at the tops of PC gaming companies.
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They have the best of the "baby's first" casual games.
 
Pivo504 said:
Got in on beta this past weekend. Took a little while to get used to the game play. But I honestly feel like it's a cool new take on fps gaming. No one else is doing anything different. Once I got used to it I couldn't stop playing. All the characters play differently and take sometime to master. The robot ninja was a blast. Really haven't had this much fun with an fps game in awhile
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Same here. I'm really sad they took my access away now. I had an absolute blast playing it all weekend. TotalBiscuit uploaded a video on his thoughts and I completely agree with him. I can see this game being huge and being a great game for esports. I'm very much looking forward to the release and seeing what it brings.
 
I got in the stress test this weekend. I played lots of TF2 so I figured this game would be right up my alley. Sadly nothing really grabbed me about the game or made me want to play it much. I'll just throw out a couple pros/cons here.
Pros:
Good performance
Good graphics
Movement felt responsive

Cons:
Maps were extremely small (I also dislike PL)
6v6 limitation (Will elaborate a bit more below)
Many abilities were really flashy and distracting

With the lack of public servers and the small team size making sure your team has a good composition is much more important in this game. When you have 22 classes I think that makes it difficult for lots of players to grasp, that or they don't give a damn. Either way you end up getting steamrolled lots of times because of that or the fact that people aren't bothering to work together anyway. I don't think one person used the in-game voice the entire time I played. Really hope they can do some more with this game, I'm a big fan of Blizzard games.
 
XvMMvX said:
LoL typical hipster logic of its popular so it can't be good.

Some of you must lead miserable lives.
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I'm having a great life playing games that aren't easy mode facerollers or where winning isn't based solely off of APM.

WoW was good back around BC but it has required nothing more than facerolling since then.
D3 started out with functions that were anti-gamer (RMAH and laggy online only play for starters - which were removed from the console releases) and took an expansion pack to even get decent itemization which is sad for an ARPG. While I haven't played it since the expansion from what I hear it's still no PoE and just now equal to D2 at best.
Starcraft 2 was also anti-gamer in that they removed LAN play and released it as a third of a full game. It's popular but it's a far smaller, less complex, and less of a technical achievement than something like Total Annihilation which came out almost 20 years ago.
HotS lacks interesting and varied gameplay options even when compared to casual MOBAs like Smite or Strife. Nevermind comparing it to full MOBAs like DOTA or League.
Hearthstone has a good online component but it's less complex than even kids TCGs like Yugioh or Pokemon.


I'm not in the Overwatch beta so I can't comment on it. It looks like it could be fun which is why I checked out this thread. I really want to try; I'm just hoping that it's not like most modern Blizz games; watered down to the point where it feels like it was primarily designed to be played by children on their Leapster pad.
 
Was lucky enough to get into closed beta (Actual, not just stress test) and I am really enjoying the game a lot. The different classes make it really refreshing.
 
Cypher what was your fav character? I'm also hoping they will release bigger maps. Some of the characters would benefit greatly from good map design like widow.
 
Played in the weekend stress test this past Saturday/Sunday and had an absolute blast. Played some games solo, others with 1-2 friends, and also a number of games with a full team of 5-6 friends.

I've been playing TF2 since 2007 and the current state of Overwatch reminds me of TF2 back before Valve spoiled it with all the poorly-optimized and artstyle-breaking cosmetics, the trading, and the poorly balanced new weapons.

I would definitely like to see a number of the ultimate abilities changed as there are a few that are basically just aimbot insta-kills, which totally goes against the notion that this is going to be a 6v6 competitive shooter. McCree's "high noon" ability, for example, simply kills everyone he can see on his screen without needing to aim at anyone, and Soldier 76's ult directs all bullets at enemies without needing to do anything but hold M1...these aren't things that should be in a competitive shooter. I'd like to see them reworked to something powerful, but requiring skill.

I'm definitely looking forward to their next beta invites or stress test...I wanted to keep playing.
 
Pivo504 said:
Cypher what was your fav character? I'm also hoping they will release bigger maps. Some of the characters would benefit greatly from good map design like widow.
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Pharah by far. Shes a bit squishy but I can cause so much havoc with her. I love everything about her to be honest. Her ability to float around and her weapon just feel so natural to me. I had one game where I ended up 27-6 or something ridiculous like that.

I played almost all of the characters over the weekend and I had a fun time with most of them. There were very few games where I didn't have some sort of card at the end of the game. I don't see myself getting bored of this game anytime soon. Every game is going to play out different with different compositions of characters which will keep it fresh.
 
I agree aix but the only problem is how can you make sum of the ultimates more skill based? Like the ninja deflect ability or the Cowboys head shot ultimate? I really don't think blizzard is going to change this...but I'm honestly happy to see a fresh fps instead of cod number 80, battlefront remake etc etc
 
Pivo504 said:
I agree aix but the only problem is how can you make sum of the ultimates more skill based? Like the ninja deflect ability or the Cowboys head shot ultimate? I really don't think blizzard is going to change this...but I'm honestly happy to see a fresh fps instead of cod number 80, battlefront remake etc etc
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I'm not a developer so obviously I'm just spitballing on a forum, but they could certainly elect to make the ults do a number of other things rather than auto-aim: they could make "high noon" shoot a crazy number of bullets with instant reload, or they could make Soldier 76's "I've got you in my sights" do some sort of charged massive strike...or whatever. I don't care what, just make it something that it isn't simply "press button to kill everyone you see." It really isn't an outrageous request for a skill-based game, IMO. The problem with auto-targeting (especially hitscan) abilities is that there's literally no recourse for the other players, and that's anti-skill.

If that's not the direction they want to go then that's fine - I've put up with worse BS in TF2 over the years - but there's really no reason to have any auto-aim abilities in a PC shooter, IMO.
 
Good point aix. Is there a way you can voice this to Blizzard? I miss games that require skill (tribes was the last for me)and like you said having auto aim is going to take 0 skill to master.
 
Pivo504 said:
I agree aix but the only problem is how can you make sum of the ultimates more skill based? Like the ninja deflect ability or the Cowboys head shot ultimate? I really don't think blizzard is going to change this...but I'm honestly happy to see a fresh fps instead of cod number 80, battlefront remake etc etc
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So the ninja deflect only deflects to where his crosshairs are aimed and in a small area he's facing. There's a real chance it could be reflected and hit no one.
 
From what I saw from Blizzcon last year, the auto-aim skills are intentional. Blizzard realizes not all of their playerbase is capable of (or desire to) play a twitch shooter but they still want them to be able to contribute, so you have abilities like this crop up. Similar things were mentioned with respect to the support classes.
 
Aix. said:
I'm not a developer so obviously I'm just spitballing on a forum, but they could certainly elect to make the ults do a number of other things rather than auto-aim: they could make "high noon" shoot a crazy number of bullets with instant reload, or they could make Soldier 76's "I've got you in my sights" do some sort of charged massive strike...or whatever. I don't care what, just make it something that it isn't simply "press button to kill everyone you see." It really isn't an outrageous request for a skill-based game, IMO. The problem with auto-targeting (especially hitscan) abilities is that there's literally no recourse for the other players, and that's anti-skill.

If that's not the direction they want to go then that's fine - I've put up with worse BS in TF2 over the years - but there's really no reason to have any auto-aim abilities in a PC shooter, IMO.
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I agree on your points, but Overwatch is a multiplatform title. In addition to PC it is also coming to PS4 and XBONE.
 
Armenius said:
I agree on your points, but Overwatch is a multiplatform title. In addition to PC it is also coming to PS4 and XBONE.
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I'm talking about auto-aim ultimate abilities, which really aren't about the game being on PC or console and more about having a powerful ability. I'd prefer that those abilities be skill based (i.e. a quad damage power-up still requires you to aim and hit other players).

Blizzard already removed auto-aim options from the rest of the game (i.e. the stuff you normally see implemented for console controllers) so I'm not worried about that.
 
XvMMvX said:
LoL typical hipster logic of its popular so it can't be good.

Some of you must lead miserable lives.
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Exactly. Anyone that doesn't think McDonald's is the BEST restaurant on the planet is and idiot.
 
Aix. said:
I'm talking about auto-aim ultimate abilities, which really aren't about the game being on PC or console and more about having a powerful ability. I'd prefer that those abilities be skill based (i.e. a quad damage power-up still requires you to aim and hit other players).

Blizzard already removed auto-aim options from the rest of the game (i.e. the stuff you normally see implemented for console controllers) so I'm not worried about that.
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I doubt they are going to change those. I personally wouldn't mind seeing that stuff be removed as well.
 
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